This paper argues that establishing a research agenda to study the changing nature of postsecondary institutions as organizations is best done by examining their organization-environment interface, and it suggests an agenda based on historical perspective; a contingency model, or framework, of the organization-environment interaction; and a…

Understanding the climate and culture of the campus is essential to improving organizational effectiveness. Institutional researchers will be influenced increasingly by research in this area, by improving their awareness, defining important dimensions of the institutional culture, establishing benchmarks for future reference, actively undertaking…

Institutional research that examines the influence of organizational and administrative factors on student learning may be critical in improving educational performance. The role that institutional researchers might play in reducing semantic confusion and enhancing understanding of how colleges and universities improve student learning is…

This paper reviews and synthesizes the literature on institutional support for student assessment, offering an organizing framework for using this information to shape institutional policies, processes, and practices in ways that lead to both improved student performance and institutional functioning. The framework, first, involves the overall…